PO career development training program sponsored by the Association of Medical School Pediatric Department Chairmen, Inc. in conjunction with the NICHD under a cooperative agreement. The program was designed to bring basic science into specialty areas of pediatrics and provide a cadre of entry-level young faculty well prepared for competitive academic research. In addition to NICHD funding, training is supported by six private foundations. The program establishes a total of five years of support for pediatricians committed to a career in academic pediatrics. A minimum of 2 years of basic research training in highly selected research laboratory settings with senior scientists serving as mentors is funded by the program; and a sponsoring department of pediatrics provides one year of clinical fellowship training and two years in a junior faculty position with 75 % research time. A unique aspect of this program is the continuum of career guidance provided trainees from the time of application and identification of an appropriate training site and mentor to the time of recruitment into a junior faculty position. The candidates' continued academic development is reviewed and monitored throughout the five year period by the program office and the program Steering and Evaluation Committees with assistance from members of the Selection Committee. This program assures adequate basic research training, clinical experience to establish subspecialty competence, and subsequent academic position and thus insures that some of the brightest investigators of the future will remain in academic pediatrics.